A once-closed school reopens as a civic anchor for opportunity and belonging.

In 2013, a former City administration closed fifty public schools—four in Austin—marking the largest mass school closure in U.S. history. On Juneteenth 2025, the community reopened one: Robert Emmet Elementary, now the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, designed by LJC (Lamar Johnson Collaborative).

Span collaborated with Borderless Studio, Austin Coming Together, and the Westside Health Authority to design a permanent exhibit telling Austin’s story of resilience and renewal.

Positioned between the historic school and its new addition, the installation serves as a gateway through time, tracing 125 years across three eras—education, closure, and rebirth—through a modular, ascending timeline of archival images and community voices.

Angled color-block compositions echo the upward rhythm of the narrative, layering photographs, news clippings, and testimonies drawn from the Chicago History Museum and Chicago Tribune archives. Typography grounds the story in a lineage and advocacy: VTC Du Bois by Tré Seals is paired with Halyard by Joshua Darden for clarity and warmth.

More than a historical plaque, the exhibit becomes public storytelling in motion that lifts memory into momentum. The Aspire Center stands as a living archive for Austin’s future—proof that when a community defines its own path, it shapes the city around it.